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In the Ettenmoors in Eriador there lived an evil race of Hillmen who served the Witch-king of Angmar in the Third Age of the Sun. These barbarian Hillmen were fierce and numerous and they were allied with the Orkish legions. In the fourteenth and fifteenths centuries they subdued the provinces of Rhudaur and Cardolan of the Dúnedain of the North Kingdom. In 1974, after six centuries of intermittent war this alliance finally brought down Arthedain, the last of the proud Dúnedain provinces of the North.

But this too was the time of the Hillmen’s own ruin. Hardly had the Hillmen and their Witch-king taken Fornost, the last citadel of the Dúnedain, when they were attacked by a great army led by Eärnur of the South Kingdom of Gondor, Círdan of Lindon and Glorfindel of Rivendell. In this Battle of Fornost the power of the HIllmen was broken, the Orcs exterminated and the kingdom of Angmar was destroyed. The Hillmen became a hunted scattered people.

Imrahil was a Dúnedain prince of Dol Amroth, brother to Finduilas, who married King Denethor II. Dol Amroth was the largest city of Belfalas in Gondor. He was of mixed Dúnedain and Elvish blood and during the War of the Ring, he was a champion of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, captain of the Swan Knights. He saved Faramir from the Southrons after he had been poisoned and it was also him who noticed that Éowyn was not dead after the Battle of Pelennor Fields, sending her to the healing chambers. It was he who temporarily took over the rule of the White Tower of Gondor after the fall of Denethor II and he also fought before the Black Gates of Mordor afterwards.

After the War of the Ring, his daughter Lothíriel married Éomer, the King of Rohan and Prince Imrahil and his nephew Prince Faramir were King Elessar’s chief commanders. Imrahil was also part of the Great Council of Gondor, and remained an advisor of the King.

Celebrían was born in Ost-in-Edhil and was the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn of Lothlórien and in the first century of the Third Age, she married Elrond from Rivendell and together they had Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen.

In the year 2509 of the Third Age, Celebrían was travelling between Rivendell and Lothlórien when she and her host were waylaid by orcs and she was captured and tormented. She was rescued by her sons, Elladan and Elrohir, and brought back to Rivendell, but had received a poisonous wound that wouldn’t heal fully despite Elrond’s efforts and she was broken and fearful after the attack. The following year, she journeyed west and sailed to the Undying Lands, leaving Elrond in Middle-Earth.

When I was re-reading “The Lord of the Rings” not long ago, I came upon a sentence which puzzled me. It was in “The Fellowship of the Ring”, Book 2, chapter 4: “A Journey in the Dark” that Aragorn said the following and I was wondering about who this person was:

‘Do not be afraid!’ said Aragorn. There was a pause longer than usual, and Gandalf and Gimli were whispering together; … ‘Do not be afraid! I have been with him on many a journey, if never on one so dark; … He is surer of finding the way home in a blind night than the cats of Queen Berúthiel.’

I didn’t recall having read anywhere else about this Queen Berúthiel or her cats, so I started digging on the net and afterwards in my “History of Middle-Earth” and found out  from “Unfinished Tales” that she was a lady of Black Númenórean descent, married (but childless) by arrangement to the King Tarannon of Gondor in the first part of the Third Age. Black Númenóreans were the surviving worshippers of Sauron after the drowning of Númenor and remake of Beleriand and were said to be well-learned in evil lore.

She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor,…setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.The Queen was described by Tolkien as “nefarious, solitary, and loveless”, which is perhaps why the King decided to separate from her and he sent her back to her birthplace south of Umbar.

The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.Her name was erased from the Book of the Kings (‘but the memory of men is not wholly shut in books, and the cats of Queen Berúthiel never passed wholly out of men’s speech’).

It does indeed seem as she didn’t pass out of men’s speech as Aragorn still uses the term about Gandalf during the Fellowship’s journey through Moria for seeing in the dark.

Círdan is one of my favourite characters from Tolkien’s legendarium. Even though he is not one of the main players in the books, then he seems to have a finger in a lot of the great events through all three ages. This is the history of the mariner, ringbearer, king and shipwright.

Círdan was of the Telerin Elves. He remained behind at the west shores of Beleriand before the First Age began when the King Elvë (later Thingol) went missing and his brother Olwë continued to the Undying Lands with the rest of the Teleri. Círdan became king of the Telerin Elves who stayed behind and they called themselves the Falathrim. Throughout the First Age they played a great role in supporting other armies during battles against Melkor’s armies. Eventually, Melkor sacked the Falathrim cities and the remnant of the people fled to the Isle of Balar, which was afterwards often the refugee of survivors from Melkor’s onslaughts, such as Gil-galad and Elwing.

At the end of the First Age, the War of Wrath caused the destruction of the Isle of Balar, and Círdan and his people were forced to flee back to Middle-Earth. They settled on the shores and created Mithlond and Lindon and in the Second Age, they befriended and helped the Númenóreans, including Aldarion who would later become King of the Númenor. Círdan had close contact and friendship with the Elves of Lothlórien and Eregion and he was the one with most suspecion against the stranger, Annatar, who later turned out to be Sauron in disguise.

Círdan warned Celebrimbor in Eregion against letting Annatar help in making the Rings of Power, but was ignored. When Celebrimbor learned of his error, he gave the Elven ring Nenya to Círdan and the two others to Gil-galad for safe-keeping.

In the War of the Last Alliance in which Sauron was cast down and where Gil-galad and Elendil perished, Círdan together with Elrond urged Isildur to destroy the One Ring, but as we know, without luck.

In the start of the Third Age, Círdan yielded the ring Narya (the Ring of Fire) to Gandalf and later played a great role in the Battle of Fornost, where the Witch-King was cast down. Afterwards, he gained one of the palantíri – the far seeing stones – and began to build more ships to sail west with Elves wishing to leave Middle-Earth for the Undying lands. Círdan was a member of the white council together with the Wizards, Elrond and Galadriel, but played a very small role in the War of the Ring.

The last we know of him is that he sailed Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo and Galadriel via Tol Eressëa to Valinor after the end of the War of the Ring and the Third Age. He remained himself in Middle-Earth and it is said that he will sail on the last ship to Valinor.